Censored Eleven
Encyclopedia
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists
(UA) in 1968. UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions
library at that time, and decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because the depictions of black people
in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. The ban has been upheld by UA and the successive owners of the pre-August 1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies catalog to this day, and these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968, and have only been exhibited once by Warner Bros., since then, theatrically in one theater in spring 2010 (see below for more details). They have turned up, however, on low-cost VHS and DVD collections over the last thirty years.
on international television
(and on some video and DVD collections) today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional perceived racist
joke, instance of graphic violence
, or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, ingesting pills and dangerous chemicals freely, playing with fire, and abusing animals).
For example, one classic cartoon gag, most prominent in MGM
's Tom and Jerry
cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a blackface
caricature after an explosion or an automobile back-fire
. A sequence in the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Cleaning
(1948) turned Tom into a black-face caricature. Upon questioning by the maid, Tom answers “No, mam. I ain’t seen no cat aroun’ here… uh unh, ain’t no cat, no place, no how-no mam,” in stereotypical African American dialect. Such small amounts of objectionable material only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make it palatable to censors, in spite of objections and sometimes boycotts by fans.
However, in the case of the Censored Eleven, racist themes are so essential and so completely pervade the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing could ever make them acceptable for distribution.
Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett
: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
and Tin Pan Alley Cats
. The former, a jazz
-based parody of Walt Disney
's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
, is frequently included on lists of the greatest cartoons ever made, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett's now-classic 1938 short Porky in Wackyland
. Author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote the following:
Bob Clampett himself explained the evolution of "Coal Black
" during his public appearances in the 70s and 80s, and during taped interviews:
The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its heyday even sometimes had censorship problems more complex in some respects than those of features. Unlike feature films, which were routinely censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made the producers exceptionally cautious as to restrictions. Clean Pastures, for example, had considerable censor trouble during its production much more than its basis for parody - The Green Pastures - ever did. The words "De Lawd" were not allowed and censors also wanted to eliminate a halo
from a black character. In 1983, director Chuck Jones commented on the television censorship of the Warner Bros. cartoons: "I don't like to see the films cut at all. […] They make some cuts that are so arbitrary and stupid, you can't believe it." Independent stations that once ran the syndicated Warner Bros. cartoons never had the same type of censorship as first-run networks such as ABC and CBS did for the cartoons. Some stations even owned syndication rights to "a few they consider[ed] racially stereotypical," but never ran them.
When he obtained distribution rights to all pre-1948 Warner Bros.
cartoons in 1986, Ted Turner
vowed that he would not distribute or air any cartoons from the Censored Eleven. They were the only cartoons in this package not to be featured in the laserdisc series The Golden Age of Looney Tunes
.
Since Time Warner
bought Turner Broadcasting in 1996, this policy has largely been upheld, but has also shown signs of weakening. A total of twelve Bugs Bunny
shorts were not aired on Cartoon Network
during its "June Bugs" marathon in 2001. However, Warner Bros. began to release DVD collections of classic cartoons in 2003 entitled the Looney Tunes Golden Collection
with one of the cartoons (Frigid Hare
, which depicts a stereotypical Eskimo trying to kill a baby penguin, and was still seen on Cartoon Network as late as 2002 and featured as a DVD extra in March of the Penguins
) featured on the set uncut and uncensored. Also in 2001, Cartoon Network animation documentary show ToonHeads had a one-hour special centered on World War II-era cartoons and two World War II-era Bugs Bunny shorts Herr Meets Hare
shown in full and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
shown in clips in a short montage about the depictions of Japanese people at the time were shown.
While none of the shorts included on the discs are part of the Censored Eleven, many of the cartoons that were included were routinely censored on television, but were included uncut on DVD. Furthermore, each DVD from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3
opens with a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg
, where she warns the audience about some of these shorts, stating that although the behavior was and is not acceptable, the cartoons depicting this are a vital part of history and should not be forgotten. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
collection includes a similar disclaimer, written on a gold card and merely summarized the point that while the cartoons are considered offensive today for what they depict, they are not going to be shown censored because editing out the racist depictions—and therefore effectively denying that the racism of the era ever happened—is worse than actually showing them.
Many of the Censored Eleven are available on bootleg
video. Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Jungle Jitters and All This and Rabbit Stew are now in the public domain
and frequently appear on home video
releases and internet video searches.
Friz Freleng
directed the largest number of cartoons on the list, followed by Tex Avery with three, and Bob Clampett with only two cartoons to make the list. Rudolf Ising, like Chuck Jones, only has one cartoon on the list. Angel Puss is the only cartoon directed by Chuck Jones on the list as well as the only cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. The rest are Merrie Melodies. Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land is the only Piggy short on the list while All This and Rabbit Stew is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon on the list.
Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation since this list was created (but are not added onto the Censored Eleven list, though most of the cartoons censored do contain extensive blackface gags and/or black stereotypes), such as Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising's Looney Tunes featuring blackface caricature Bosko
, and the Inki
series of cartoons by Chuck Jones, as well as numerous World War II
-era cartoons concerning the Japanese such as Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
and Tokio Jokio
.
The Gone With the Wind
satire, Confederate Honey
, is similarly not circulated due to its depictions of blacks. Likewise, Which Is Witch
is also not shown because of black stereotyping. Friz Freleng's 1937 cartoon September in the Rain featured stereotypical black characters, but it wasn't entirely focused on them.
Two cartoons directed by Tex Avery
during his stint at MGM are often included in cartoon compilations that list the Censored Eleven: Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy, and also the Popeye
cartoons Pop-Pie A La Mode and Popeye's Pappy and also various WWII-era Popeye cartoons concerning the Japanese Empire such as Your a Sap, Mr. Jap, Scrap The Japs and Seein' Red, White n' Blue even though they are not Warner Bros. cartoons, but were part of the pre-May 1986 MGM and a.a.p. library that wound up under Warner Bros. control in the 1990s.
At the other end of the studio's life, the final Warner Bros. Cartoon, Injun Trouble
(directed by Robert McKimson
) is extremely rare owing to a combination of excessive jokes and stereotyping about Native Americans
and the generally poor critical reputation of Warner Bros.'s later cartoons.
Hocus Pocus Pow Wow, directed by Alex Lovy
and released the year before Injun Trouble is also somewhat rare for the same reason. A Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon not shown is the 1960 Horse Hare
in which Bugs is a lone US Cavalryman defending a Fort against Indians led by renegade Yosemite Sam-who gets "flattened" between charging US Cavalry on one side and charging Indians on the other; also has stereotyping about Native Americans
.
.
In February 2010, as part of a press release for the first annual TCM
Classic Film Festival, it was announced that the Censored Eleven were to receive a special screening sourced from restored 35mm film prints. This special presentation was put together by George Feltenstein, vice president of Warner Bros. classic film catalog. Film historian Donald Bogle
, who has six books published to his credit on the subject of African American stereotypes in film, agreed to host the event for the festival. On April 24, 2010 a total of eight of the Censored Eleven were screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The three that were not shown at the event were Jungle Jitters, All This and Rabbit Stew and Angel Puss. According to animation historian Jerry Beck
, this event was a way for Warner Bros. to test the waters for a possible DVD release of these controversial films possibly through the Warner Archives collection.
announced on the Shokus Internet Radio call-in talk program, Stu's Show that there are plans for a general traditional retail release and not via the Warner Archives. It will be "high-class" release featuring all of the Censored Eleven and other rare cartoons restored plus some bonus materials.
:Category:Censored Eleven
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
(UA) in 1968. UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions
Associated Artists Productions
Associated Artists Productions was a distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. It existed from 1953 to 1958. It was later folded into United Artists. The former a.a.p. library was later owned by MGM/UA Entertainment and then Turner Entertainment. Turner continues...
library at that time, and decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because the depictions of black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. The ban has been upheld by UA and the successive owners of the pre-August 1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies catalog to this day, and these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968, and have only been exhibited once by Warner Bros., since then, theatrically in one theater in spring 2010 (see below for more details). They have turned up, however, on low-cost VHS and DVD collections over the last thirty years.
About the cartoons
Many cartoons from previous decades are routinely editedCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
on international television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
(and on some video and DVD collections) today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional perceived racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
joke, instance of graphic violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, ingesting pills and dangerous chemicals freely, playing with fire, and abusing animals).
For example, one classic cartoon gag, most prominent in MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
's Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
caricature after an explosion or an automobile back-fire
Back-fire
A Back-fire or backfire is an explosion produced by a running internal combustion engine that occurs in the air intake or exhaust system rather than inside the combustion chamber. The same term is used when unburned fuel or hydrocarbons are ignited somewhere in the exhaust system. A visible flame...
. A sequence in the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Cleaning
Mouse Cleaning
Mouse Cleaning is a 1948 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 38th Tom and Jerry short. The title is a play on "house cleaning". It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on December 11, 1948 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer...
(1948) turned Tom into a black-face caricature. Upon questioning by the maid, Tom answers “No, mam. I ain’t seen no cat aroun’ here… uh unh, ain’t no cat, no place, no how-no mam,” in stereotypical African American dialect. Such small amounts of objectionable material only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make it palatable to censors, in spite of objections and sometimes boycotts by fans.
However, in the case of the Censored Eleven, racist themes are so essential and so completely pervade the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing could ever make them acceptable for distribution.
Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Warner Bros...
and Tin Pan Alley Cats
Tin Pan Alley Cats
Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 animated short subject, directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies series...
. The former, a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-based parody of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
, is frequently included on lists of the greatest cartoons ever made, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett's now-classic 1938 short Porky in Wackyland
Porky in Wackyland
Porky in Wackyland is a 1938 animated short film, directed by Robert Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes series....
. Author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote the following:
Bob Clampett himself explained the evolution of "Coal Black
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Warner Bros...
" during his public appearances in the 70s and 80s, and during taped interviews:
The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its heyday even sometimes had censorship problems more complex in some respects than those of features. Unlike feature films, which were routinely censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made the producers exceptionally cautious as to restrictions. Clean Pastures, for example, had considerable censor trouble during its production much more than its basis for parody - The Green Pastures - ever did. The words "De Lawd" were not allowed and censors also wanted to eliminate a halo
Halo (religious iconography)
A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
from a black character. In 1983, director Chuck Jones commented on the television censorship of the Warner Bros. cartoons: "I don't like to see the films cut at all. […] They make some cuts that are so arbitrary and stupid, you can't believe it." Independent stations that once ran the syndicated Warner Bros. cartoons never had the same type of censorship as first-run networks such as ABC and CBS did for the cartoons. Some stations even owned syndication rights to "a few they consider[ed] racially stereotypical," but never ran them.
When he obtained distribution rights to all pre-1948 Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoons in 1986, Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
vowed that he would not distribute or air any cartoons from the Censored Eleven. They were the only cartoons in this package not to be featured in the laserdisc series The Golden Age of Looney Tunes
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes is an out-of-print series of 5-disc laserdisc and 10-tape VHS box sets released by MGM/UA Home Video, as part of a deal with Turner Entertainment Co., a division of Turner Broadcasting System. Five volumes were released on laserdisc, but only the first volume was...
.
Since Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
bought Turner Broadcasting in 1996, this policy has largely been upheld, but has also shown signs of weakening. A total of twelve Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
shorts were not aired on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
during its "June Bugs" marathon in 2001. However, Warner Bros. began to release DVD collections of classic cartoons in 2003 entitled the Looney Tunes Golden Collection
Looney Tunes Golden Collection
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection was an annual series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Bros.' home video unit Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts...
with one of the cartoons (Frigid Hare
Frigid Hare
Frigid Hare is a 1948 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short, released in 1949, and was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese...
, which depicts a stereotypical Eskimo trying to kill a baby penguin, and was still seen on Cartoon Network as late as 2002 and featured as a DVD extra in March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins is a 2005 French nature documentary film. It was directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The film depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica...
) featured on the set uncut and uncensored. Also in 2001, Cartoon Network animation documentary show ToonHeads had a one-hour special centered on World War II-era cartoons and two World War II-era Bugs Bunny shorts Herr Meets Hare
Herr Meets Hare
Herr Meets Hare is a 1945 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. This short, coming a few months before the collapse of the Third Reich, was one of the last major wartime cartoons from Warner Brothers...
shown in full and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theaters on April 22, 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation....
shown in clips in a short montage about the depictions of Japanese people at the time were shown.
While none of the shorts included on the discs are part of the Censored Eleven, many of the cartoons that were included were routinely censored on television, but were included uncut on DVD. Furthermore, each DVD from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 is a DVD box set from Warner Home Video that was released on October 25, 2005. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short subject cartoons, 9 documentaries, 32 commentary tracks from animators and historians, 11 "vintage treasures from...
opens with a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, where she warns the audience about some of these shorts, stating that although the behavior was and is not acceptable, the cartoons depicting this are a vital part of history and should not be forgotten. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 is a Looney Tunes collection on DVD. Following the pattern of one release each year of the previous volumes, it was released on November 14, 2006...
collection includes a similar disclaimer, written on a gold card and merely summarized the point that while the cartoons are considered offensive today for what they depict, they are not going to be shown censored because editing out the racist depictions—and therefore effectively denying that the racism of the era ever happened—is worse than actually showing them.
Many of the Censored Eleven are available on bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
video. Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Jungle Jitters and All This and Rabbit Stew are now in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
and frequently appear on home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
releases and internet video searches.
Censored Eleven list
The cartoons in the Censored Eleven are:| # | Title | Year | Director | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Rudy Ising , produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on November 28, 1931 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation... |
1931 | Rudolf Ising | Merrie Melodies |
| 2. | Sunday Go to Meetin' Time Sunday Go to Meetin' Time Sunday Go to Meetin' Time is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on August 8, 1936 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation. The plot follows the misadventures of a black man in the... |
1936, 1944 (reissue) | Friz Freleng Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros.... |
Merrie Melodies |
| 3. | Clean Pastures Clean Pastures Clean Pastures is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by I. Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger, and released to theatres on May 22, 1937 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. The cartoon is a parody of Warner Bros.' 1936 film, The Green Pastures... |
1937 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
| 4. | Uncle Tom's Bungalow Uncle Tom's Bungalow Uncle Tom's Bungalow is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and released to theatres on July 12, 1937 by Warner Bros. The short cartoon is a parody of the 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the “plantation melodrama” genre of the 1930s. It contains many stereotypical portrayals... |
1937 | Tex Avery Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros... |
Merrie Melodies |
| 5. | Jungle Jitters Jungle Jitters Jungle Jitters is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on February 19, 1938 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by Friz Freleng, with musical... |
1938 | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
| 6. | The Isle of Pingo Pongo The Isle of Pingo Pongo The Isle of Pingo Pongo is a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It is the first of Avery's spoofs of travelogues. The cartoon was banned from television syndication in 1968 by United Artists for racist depictions of black people and is one of the "Censored Eleven".The short follows a... |
1938, 1944 (reissue) | Tex Avery | Merrie Melodies |
| 7. | All This and Rabbit Stew All This and Rabbit Stew All This and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by an uncredited Tex Avery, with musical... |
1941 | Tex Avery | Merrie Melodies |
| 8. | Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Warner Bros... |
1943 | Robert Clampett | Merrie Melodies |
| 9. | Tin Pan Alley Cats Tin Pan Alley Cats Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 animated short subject, directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies series... |
1943 | Robert Clampett | Merrie Melodies |
| 10. | Angel Puss Angel Puss Angel Puss is a 1944 short animated cartoon written by Lou Lilly, animated by Ken Harris, and directed by Chuck Jones. It was released on June 3, 1944, by Warner Brothers as part of its Looney Tunes series.-Synopsis:... |
1944 | Chuck Jones Chuck Jones Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio... |
Looney Tunes |
| 11. | Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears is an animated cartoon short written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Friz Freleng. It was released on September 2, 1944, by Warner Brothers as part of its Merrie Melodies series.... |
1944, 1951 (reissue) | Friz Freleng | Merrie Melodies |
Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
directed the largest number of cartoons on the list, followed by Tex Avery with three, and Bob Clampett with only two cartoons to make the list. Rudolf Ising, like Chuck Jones, only has one cartoon on the list. Angel Puss is the only cartoon directed by Chuck Jones on the list as well as the only cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. The rest are Merrie Melodies. Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land is the only Piggy short on the list while All This and Rabbit Stew is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon on the list.
Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation since this list was created (but are not added onto the Censored Eleven list, though most of the cartoons censored do contain extensive blackface gags and/or black stereotypes), such as Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising's Looney Tunes featuring blackface caricature Bosko
Bosko
Bosko is an animated cartoon character created by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko is the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series, and is the star of over three dozen Looney Tunes shorts released by Warner Bros...
, and the Inki
Inki
Inki is the lead character in an animated cartoon series of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short films by animator Chuck Jones....
series of cartoons by Chuck Jones, as well as numerous World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era cartoons concerning the Japanese such as Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theaters on April 22, 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation....
and Tokio Jokio
Tokio Jokio
Tokio Jokio is a 1943 Looney Tunes short directed by Norman McCabe . It is a propaganda film made during World War II mocking Japan in the style of a supposed Japanese film journal broadcast...
.
The Gone With the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
satire, Confederate Honey
Confederate Honey
Confederate Honey is a 1940 Merrie Melodies animated cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng and produced by Leon Schlesinger. It is a sendup of Gone with the Wind, and features an early appearance by Elmer Fudd in his most familiar form....
, is similarly not circulated due to its depictions of blacks. Likewise, Which Is Witch
Which Is Witch
Which Is Witch is a 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon released by Warner Bros. in 1949, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce.- Plot :...
is also not shown because of black stereotyping. Friz Freleng's 1937 cartoon September in the Rain featured stereotypical black characters, but it wasn't entirely focused on them.
Two cartoons directed by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
during his stint at MGM are often included in cartoon compilations that list the Censored Eleven: Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy, and also the Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
cartoons Pop-Pie A La Mode and Popeye's Pappy and also various WWII-era Popeye cartoons concerning the Japanese Empire such as Your a Sap, Mr. Jap, Scrap The Japs and Seein' Red, White n' Blue even though they are not Warner Bros. cartoons, but were part of the pre-May 1986 MGM and a.a.p. library that wound up under Warner Bros. control in the 1990s.
At the other end of the studio's life, the final Warner Bros. Cartoon, Injun Trouble
Injun Trouble (1969 film)
Injun Trouble is a 1969 animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Robert McKimson and featuring Cool Cat. It is noted for being the final cartoon in the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, ending a run which had lasted since 1930.This cartoon was the last...
(directed by Robert McKimson
Robert McKimson
Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
) is extremely rare owing to a combination of excessive jokes and stereotyping about Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
and the generally poor critical reputation of Warner Bros.'s later cartoons.
Hocus Pocus Pow Wow, directed by Alex Lovy
Alex Lovy
Alex Lovy was an American animator, who spent the majority of his career as an animator and director at Walter Lantz Productions, later being a producer at Hanna-Barbera, and also supervising the cartoon unit at Warner Bros...
and released the year before Injun Trouble is also somewhat rare for the same reason. A Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon not shown is the 1960 Horse Hare
Horse Hare
Horse Hare is a 1960 Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoon released on February 13, 1960. It stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. This cartoon reuses the plot from Tom Tom Tomcat.- Plot :...
in which Bugs is a lone US Cavalryman defending a Fort against Indians led by renegade Yosemite Sam-who gets "flattened" between charging US Cavalry on one side and charging Indians on the other; also has stereotyping about Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
.
Public awareness in the 21st century
As the 20th century came to a close, the Censored Eleven cartoons became more known to the public as several animation historians popularized their existence. The publicity these films received from various animation discussion websites eventually led to an article in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
In February 2010, as part of a press release for the first annual TCM
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
Classic Film Festival, it was announced that the Censored Eleven were to receive a special screening sourced from restored 35mm film prints. This special presentation was put together by George Feltenstein, vice president of Warner Bros. classic film catalog. Film historian Donald Bogle
Donald Bogle
Donald Bogle is a film historian and author of six books concerning African Americans in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania.-Early years:...
, who has six books published to his credit on the subject of African American stereotypes in film, agreed to host the event for the festival. On April 24, 2010 a total of eight of the Censored Eleven were screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The three that were not shown at the event were Jungle Jitters, All This and Rabbit Stew and Angel Puss. According to animation historian Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
, this event was a way for Warner Bros. to test the waters for a possible DVD release of these controversial films possibly through the Warner Archives collection.
Official release in 2011
At the New York Comic Con in October 2010, Warner Bros. confirmed that they would be releasing the Censored Eleven, completely uncut, on DVD through the Warner Archives program sometime in 2011. On December 1, 2010, animation expert Jerry BeckJerry Beck
Jerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
announced on the Shokus Internet Radio call-in talk program, Stu's Show that there are plans for a general traditional retail release and not via the Warner Archives. It will be "high-class" release featuring all of the Censored Eleven and other rare cartoons restored plus some bonus materials.
See also
- Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie BeatScrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat"Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat" is a pre-Civil Rights 1940 hit boogie-woogie song written by Don Raye. A bawdy, jazzy tune, the song describes a laundry woman from Harlem, New York whose technique is so unusual that people come from all around just to watch her scrub...
- Standards & PracticesStandards & PracticesIn the United States, Standards and Practices is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the moral, ethical, and legal implications of the program that network airs...
:Category:Censored Eleven